whom the Steynes are but lacqueys, mushrooms of yesterday (for after all they
are not of the old Gaunts, but of a minor and doubtful branch of the house) - do
you suppose, I say« (the reader must bear in mind that it is always Tom Eaves
who speaks), »that the Marchioness of Steyne, the haughtiest woman in England,
would bend down to her husband so submissively, if there were not some cause?
Pooh! I tell you there are secret reasons. I tell you, that in the emigration,
the Abbé de la Marche who was here, and was employed in the Quiberoon business
with Puisaye and Tinteniac, was the same Colonel of Mousquetaries Gris with whom
Steyne fought in the year '86: that he and the Marchioness met again: that it
was it after the Reverend Colonel was shot in Brittany that Lady Steyne took to
those extreme practices of devotion which she carries on now; for she is
closeted with her director every day - she is at service at Spanish Place every
morning, I've watched her there - that is, I've happened to be passing there -
and depend on it there's a mystery in her case. People are not so unhappy unless
they have something to repent of,« added Tom Eaves with a knowing wag of his
head; »and depend on it, that woman would not be so submissive as she is, if the
Marquis had not some sword to hold over her.«
    So, if Mr. Eaves's information be correct, it is very likely that this lady,
in her high station, had to submit to many a private indignity, and to hide many
secret griefs under a calm face. And let us, my brethren who have not our names
in the Red Book, console ourselves by thinking comfortably how miserable our
betters may be, and that Damocles, who sits on satin cushions, and is served on
gold plate, has an awful sword hanging over his head in the shape of a bailiff,
or an hereditary disease, or a family secret, which peeps out every now and then
from the embroidered arras in a ghastly manner, and will be sure to drop one day
or the other in the right place.
    In comparing, too, the poor man's situation with that of the great, there is
(always according to Mr. Eaves) another source of comfort for the former. You
who have little or no patrimony to bequeath or to inherit, may be on good terms
with your father or your son; whereas the heir of a great